


Duel of Durability

by Kaimi_Kreissel



Series: Tales Secret Santa One-shots [1]
Category: Tales of Berseria
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:08:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28656993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaimi_Kreissel/pseuds/Kaimi_Kreissel
Summary: Rokurou and Eizen make a bet. The outcome? A really intense duel that doesn’t go anywhere. Or so others think.
Relationships: Eizen/Rokurou Rangetsu
Series: Tales Secret Santa One-shots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2100180
Kudos: 6





	Duel of Durability

**Author's Note:**

> This was done as my Tales Secret Santa 2020 assignment for Tumblr user @eijunsawamuras.

The duel was on! Neither was willing to let the other win. After all, the price for losing the bet was high.

“Give up,” the blonde man said, cold expression on his face.

“Maybe it’s _you_ who should yield to me,” his opponent, a raven-haired man replied with a smirk.

A red-haired haired woman then entered the room. She looked at the two men and shook her head.

“They’re _still_ at it?” she asked.

“I’m not even surprised at this point,” a woman with long black hair who was in the room sighed. “Actually I’m annoyed.”

“But they’ve been at it for an _hour_ already,” the red-haired woman said. “Surely even _they_ would be worn out by now.”

Yet the two men didn’t seem to loose their strength at all. Quite on the contrary actually: the more time they spent on this the stronger they grew. And that caused the duel to prolong to a ridiculous length.

“You don’t understand it,” a little boy said without lifting his gaze from the book he was reading. “It builds character.”

“Magilou has enough character to fill for our whole gang,” the black-haired woman stated.

The two men were loosing focus with all the blabbering in the room. This duel was getting intense with every passing minute, but the two women wouldn’t notice it. However the boy felt that the mana filling the room was growing more violent and unstable.

“Gah! This is pointless. I’m leaving,” the black-haired woman said and left the room.

“Velvet...” the red-haired woman sighed.

Silence then filled the room. Finally the two men could continue their duel in peace.

However the calm was not to last for too long. A woman in a whimsical witch wear entered the room, a wicked smile on her face.

“Who’s winning?” she asked. “I bet 10,000 gald that Rokurou has the better grip.”

“Magilou!” the other woman shouted at her.

“What? Can’t a girl have fun?”

“You are a bad example to Laphicet!”

“As it should be!” she pouted. “You ever saw a prim and proper witch?”

“You do have a point,” the red-haired woman contemplated. “Still, I cannot allow you to—”

“Shut your traps!” both men yelled.

“But—”

The other woman started, but Magilou interrupted her, “You’re not helping me win my gald!”

With the distractions just growing with every moment, the boy, Laphicet, decided to leave the room and look for some other place to continue his reading. The concerned red-haired woman quickly followed after him, worried that Magilou would want to continue teaching him improper things.

The witch on the other hand stayed with the two men, eager to see the results of their duel. After all the prize was whole 10,000 gald that she bet with Benwick. There was no way she would loose it. Rokurou was a certain winner. He was a daemon with a thirst for power, so how could she not bet on _him_?

However both men still seemed to not loose any strength even though it’s been much more than an hour already. With how the things were going it appeared that there would be no victor today.

“Pour me sake, Magilou,” Rokurou’s surprisingly commanding voice echoed through the room. “This is getting boring.”

“How am I gonna win if you’re drunk?” she cried.

“Pour me one as well,” Rokurou’s blonde opponent said.

“Oh? This could turn interesting,” Magilou replied with a smirk, then started pouring the alcohol for both men. “Do me a favor, Eizen, and pass out first.”

The blonde man ignored the last remark and together with Rokurou drank his sake in a single shot. Being the first shot, she expected that it wouldn’t take any effect on either of them. So as much as she hated it she had to pour them sake every now and then and see which one would pass out first.

But it wasn’t going at all the way she had hoped. It appeared that over the years they both have built an incredible tolerance for alcohol. So big in fact that she started to think that her bet was yet her another bad one.

“Argh! I give up!” she finally exclaimed after another hour of Rokurou and Eizen’s duel-and-drink contest. “You’ve been at it for three hours straight and at least a dozen of rounds and this stupid arm wrestling match haven’t progressed _at all_!”

She left the room, nearly crying over her quite likely lost bet at this point. Who would have thought that these two would have _so much_ stamina!?

Suddenly intense energy filled the room and both men’s will to fight rekindled. They were both pushing their arms down, but neither opponent wasn’t letting up.

“You’re either brave or stupid,” Eizen finally said. “Challenging the _Reaper_ to a duel.”

“And this is why besting you will be such a pleasure.”

Eizen did not respond to that. Instead he tightened his grip over Rokurou’s hand and pushed harder than before. His opponent did not disappoint and also started to put more strength into his arm.

The contest of strength continued, neither giving in to the other. Even with the temperature rising from the excitement, both wanted to show who was the real deal around here. But it seemed declaring a victor was ways off. At this rate they could be at it for weeks and it still would not yield the results they wanted.

So it was time to deploy the ultimate trick.

Rokurou suddenly tightened even more his already firm grip, much to Eizen’s surprise but the raven-haired man’s next course of action was to be even more unexpected. He quickly leaned over and kissed the blonde man’s lips.

Eizen was so caught unaware of what just happened that his grip loosened. Rokurou used that moment of his opponent’s temporal mental blackout to push his own hand against Eizen’s and slam it into the table.

“I won,” Rokurou reveled in his victory.

“That was against the rules!” Eizen exclaimed indignantly. “But I’d lie if it wasn’t good.”

Now it was Eizen who took Rokurou by surprise, planting his lips on his duel partner’s lips. The raven-haired man opened his eyes wide, shocked by the turn of events, but regained his composure and reciprocated the kiss.

As the act continued, Eizen untied Rokurou’s hair and started to gently caress it. Meanwhile the other man started to take off the coat of his blonde opponent.

“Who would have thought that the kiss of death could be so sweet?” Rokurou said, temporarily breaking the kiss.

“Says a daemon with lips tasting like an alleyway drunkard,” Eizen replied, to which Rokurou’s cheeks replied with a faint red shade. “Never said it was a bad taste,” and he continued to kiss Rokurou with even greater passion than before.

That night was a long one for both of them...


End file.
